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A Thai food vendor walks past Buddhist statues displayed along a back street in the old quarter of Bangkok on September 11, 2011. AFP/Getty

By ELISA MALA

This post is part of a series about my month-long stint in Thailand. Here are the first and second parts.

Note: What follows are cultural observations about Thai eating habits. I am neither a physician nor a nutritionist, so please consult your doctor with any questions about your diet.

After I shared some observations about Thai eating habits and how they contribute to low obesity rates, quite a few people offered some insightful comments. Maya Chandally, a friend from New Yorkwho has spent significant time in Thailand, put together a 1,600 word e-mail about her experiences. Whereas I’m based in uber-urban Bangkok, home to subways and sky trains, Maya spent six months of 2009 teaching English at a high school inNan, a rural province in the north. That’s why there’s mention of crickets and dog soup – I have yet to see either in the chaotic metropolis that is my current hometown. Check out some of the most salient points of her email, which are excerpted below.

Sharing (and tiny portions) is caring. At a restaurant or social setting, it would appear strange and selfish if one person were to eat an entire dish alone. Each person serves themselves food using the serving spoon that comes with each dish. In more casual settings there is no serving spoon, and each person uses their own spoon to move food from the main dish to their personal plate or bowl.

Unlike the Western convention, where you serve yourself one large portion at the beginning of a get-together, in Thai culture, you serve yourself the equivalent to a bite-size portion many times throughout the meal. Once you finish a bite-size portion, you move on to serve yourself another bite-size portion, probably from another dish. (Which is what I did for the sake of not seeming ridiculous continually serving myself small portions of the same dish). I think this is a reflection of Thai society, which values modesty and restraint and frowns upon indulgence and rashness. It requires a certain level of pacing and forces you, as a Westerner, to eat slowly and less since you don't want to appear gluttonous by either serving yourself too much at once or too frequently. As a result, I would often walk away from a meal still feeling hungry. After a while, I actually adopted this eating habit even when eating alone - serving myself large portions once in the beginning started to feel excessive and less appetizing.